Oriental conceptual fashion design and practice. From conceptual fashion to Japanese philosophy and five elements

Abstract This project aims to analyze the relationship between concept and fashion design and how fashion inspired by concept, from early age conventional fashion, oriental motifs in fashion to conceptual fashion and explore the tensions between conceptually-driven and more conventional fashion practices with the key goal of developing deeper understandings about conceptual fashion and how designer express themselves in conceptual design practice. In addition to expanding existing discourse, a key contribution of this project is the exploration of early fashion practices from both western and oriental view through two interwoven stands. Firstly, in the Contextual Review, I analyzed a context for my practice by reviewing existing cases between conventional fashion and conceptual fashion discourse, and then in the Comparative Analysis the different methods such as deconstruction or art approach used by fashion practitioners. In this analysis, I examine the key characteristics of Conceptual fashion defined by Maison Martin Margiela; Rei Kawakubo; Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto. Through this process, I seek to unpack the various meanings that the word Conceptual implies when it is applied to innovative contemporary design practice. And how the concept could be express through different culture background designers; Specifically, I explore the oriental and western concept fashion and their different view and way of transfer and build concept, and their different value and historical aesthetic and philosophy in the design process. Secondly, in the Creative Practice section, I test the relevance of the ideas explored in the Contextual Review and Comparative Analysis by applying and experimenting with them in my own creative practice projects in a studio-based inquiry. My design practice throughout this project evolves as a process that is at times methodical, and at times illogical, I use oriental Zen philosophy based "five elements" as material, Equipped with a deeper understanding of my own creative process, I am then able to relate it to the practices of well known Conceptual fashion designers, such as Martin Margiela and Rei Kawabuko. This project is comprised of a written research part and a body of creative work that are both equally weighted at fifty percent. Both the theoretical and practical elements of this project suggest that despite obvious differences between western conceptual fashion and oriental conventional fashion world there are valuable parallels to be made between the two methods of fashion design. Although eastern philosophy and art are different fields from fashion, while valuable knowledge is the key source to provide new concept and thinking towards fashion. In this project, I argue that Conceptual fashion characteristics as defined by Conceptual designers and critics are useful to understand and explore common characteristics of Conceptual fashion design practice – particularly how the conceptual relates to the visual. In addition, I argue that the study of different culture based philosophy and aesthetic form is useful to develop more explicit understandings about the methods and approaches used in Conceptual fashion design. This project makes a key contribution to fashion practice research by examining the differences between how Conventional and Conceptual fashion designers engage with the conceptual and the visual when translating their ideas into designs and how this relates to my own design practice. This is an important contribution to new knowledge because it demonstrates how contemporary fashion designers can relate their practices to Conventional fashion, Conceptual fashion from a practical, studio-based perspective as well as theoretical perspectives. This approach effectively helped me to develop a critical context for my practice as well as establish future creative directions. It also contributes to the field of fashion research, not only because of the specific findings I present, but also because it provides new ways of analyzing fashion practice – specifically, fashion design research and the translation of ideas and concept into designs.